Beset by ongoing internal political division and a sluggish economy, the United States drifted through 2013 with a sense of declining confidence in its international influence in diplomatic and economic spheres. A series of domestic setbacks, including the poorly executed rollout of a new national health insurance plan, sapped Pres. Barack Obama’s job-performance ratings and effectiveness. It was also a year of unexpected contention in foreign relations, including new struggles with intractable issues in the Arab world, but a late-year unexpected breakthrough with longtime adversary Iran prompted hopes of curtailing nuclear ambitions in that country. Most important, after four years of false starts, an apparent economic surge produced hope at year’s end that a robust U.S. recovery from the 2007–09 recession might finally be at hand.

On October 26, 2013, protesters in Washington, D.C., shout during a rally against mass surveillance …

Ann Little/Alamy

Domestic Policy

Political gridlock enveloped Washington for a third consecutive year as the Republican-led U.S. House and the Democratic-led U.S. Senate both continued to ignore the other chamber’s legislation. Obama, inaugurated in January for a second term, set out proposals on gun control, gay rights, immigration reform, and budget policy, but no major new laws emerged from Congress during the year, and the president was forced to rely on executive orders and enforcement priorities for progress on his agenda.

In the wake of a deadly December 2012 shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., Obama proposed that background checks be universally required before firearm purchases could be made, magazines be limited to 10 rounds, and assault weapons be banned. Gun rights groups headed by the National Rifle Association vigorously fought the proposals, saying that those measures would be ineffective in stopping future violence. Bipartisan legislation that would have expanded background checks died in a key U.S. Senate vote in mid-April, 54–46 (with 60 votes required).

A breakthrough on long-stalled immigration reform seemed possible as a key Republican ally, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, supported a plan that would have awarded a path to citizenship for most of the estimated 11 million people residing in the U.S. without legal authority. In late June, by a vote of 68–32, the U.S. Senate approved legislation written by a bipartisan “gang of eight” senators that featured the citizenship path and promised increased border security as well. The proposed law also introduced a “point system” for visa applicants that would have rewarded education level and entrepreneur potential. Speaker of the House John Boehner was caught between business supporters of reform and conservative critics of illegal immigration, however, and he refused to allow consideration of the Senate bill during the year, promising instead to bring up separate segments for piecemeal consideration in 2014.

Facing a series of spending cuts mandated by a 2011 budget act and the periodic need to increase budget authority for a rising national debt, Congress was embroiled in fiscal battles throughout the year. In early 2013 the Obama administration warned that unless Republicans compromised, a mandatory March 1 reduction in budget authority would cause severe hardship on both the social safety net and military preparedness. The GOP decided that a reduction in spending was preferable to increasing revenue. The Republicans rejected alternatives and took no action to avert the sequester, allowing an $85 billion reduction in budget authority ($42 billion in actual fiscal year 2013 spending) to occur. The cuts led to tangible reductions in numerous civilian and military programs, as well as the furloughing of thousands of federal workers, but the most dire predictions about the sequester’s effects failed to materialize. When layoffs at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) increased waiting time for airport security screening, Congress quickly shifted funds to the TSA to restore the status quo. (SeeSpecial Report.)

Congressional Republicans attempted to exploit several apparent missteps by executive branch officials, but results of public investigations were modest. House committees staged several inquiries into the 2012 Benghazi (Libya) consulate incident and also probed Justice Department surveillance of news reporters. In May a Treasury Department inspector general released a report alleging that the Internal Revenue Service had improperly targeted Tea Party groups for special scrutiny over three years. The Obama administration successfully distanced itself from the IRS actions, calling them inappropriate. Three high-ranking IRS officials resigned or retired during 2013, including Lois Lerner, head of the IRS tax-exempt section. She had invoked her Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination and refused to testify at a televised congressional hearing in May.

In the fall, at the insistence of Tea Party conservatives, House Republicans refused to approve a debt-limit increase until the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)—commonly known as Obamacare—had been defunded. On October 1 the government began a 16-day partial shutdown that was widely unpopular, even though entitlement and essential military spending remained unaffected. The shutdown also diverted public attention from a disastrous rollout of the Obamacare Web site, which opened for business on the same day. Many Republican leaders vowed to avoid similar government closures in the future.

At year-end two events offered hope that Washington gridlock might be ameliorated. In December the House Budget chairman, Paul Ryan, and the Senate Budget chair, Patty Murray, negotiated a limited two-year spending agreement—Congress’s first full budget in four years—that eliminated the possibility of another shutdown during the 2014 election year. The deal eased troubling parts of a scheduled 2014 sequester, trading $63 billion in short-term expenditure increases for $85 billion in extra fees and promised spending cuts over 10 years. Although some conservatives objected, the deal was easily ratified by both the House and the Senate and was signed into law.

As partisanship became more intense, Senate Democrats became increasingly irritated by minority Republican use of the filibuster as a means of slowing or rejecting administration appointees, particularly judges. In November, Majority Leader Harry Reid employed a parliamentary maneuver to allow future appointees to be speedily confirmed by a mere majority vote. Republicans complained that the filibuster rule was the main device that required a majority to listen to the minority and vowed that Democrats would regret the alteration in traditional Senate rules.

The Affordable Care Act

As a divided Congress stopped new legislation, national attention turned to the enforcement of Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the PPACA. Although some provisions in the 2010 law were effective shortly after its passage, the law’s core provisions were implemented in late 2013, to mostly negative reviews.

A screenshot of the federally run HealthCare.gov site as it appeared on November 29, 2013. The …

Jon Elswick/AP Images

The administration spent much of the year responding to complaints about inequities in the law by granting limited exemptions or delays. In July the Department of the Treasury announced that the provision requiring employers of 50 workers or more to furnish health care for employees would not be enforced until 2015. The administration had also delayed planned exchanges for smaller businesses and had scaled back burdensome income-verification rules designed to combat fraud in health-exchange subsidies.

As state exchanges opened for business on October 1, new problems developed. Many of the insurance exchanges—including a federally run Web site for 34 states—failed to work effectively, forcing a series of repairs that continued through November. As the Web sites were repaired, new problems developed. In advocating the plan, Obama and allies had repeatedly promised that everyone already insured could keep their insurance and their doctors if they wished. Instead, up to five million people found their policies canceled because their coverage did not meet new federal standards. Republican critics began calling the new law a cover for wealth redistribution and labeled the administration’s ad hoc response an unconstitutional usurpation of power.

Only days before the December 23 enrollment deadline, with participation lagging behind expectations and vulnerable Democrats seeking relief, the administration announced that those with canceled policies would not have to comply with the individual mandate to obtain insurance for 2014. These individuals would also be allowed to purchase lower-cost catastrophic-only health plans that the law had declared to be substandard. Even so, at year-end, enrollments under the PPACA were a fraction of what was expected, and critics predicted that more people would be adversely affected in the future. The law seemed on shaky ground, even though Republicans had produced no solid alternative plans. Obama, for his part, declared that exemptions “don’t go to the core of the law” and vowed to continue its implementation.

The Economy

The first half of 2013 saw the U.S. economy continuing to struggle with below-average growth as the country entered its fifth year of recovery from the 2007–09 recession. GDP grew a modest 1.8%, and full-time job growth was minimal. In the second six months, however, the economy posted more-robust growth, including a 4.1% expansion in the third quarter. This came despite headwinds created by a two-week government shutdown and worries over unknowns in the health care sector. Improving numbers from the auto, housing, and financial sectors suggested that a long-awaited economic recovery had finally appeared on the horizon.

The second-half resurgence was led by equity markets’ reaching all-time highs. The Dow Jones Industrials gained 26.5% for the year, while the broader S&P 500 gained 29.6%—its best showing since 1997—as many firms posted record profits. Automobile makers had their strongest sales year since 2007, and General Motors was able to purchase back the final shares of its stock that had been held by the U.S. Treasury Department since the 2008 auto-industry bailout. Housing prices posted another extremely upbeat year, with average home sales rising by 13% in the largest 20 markets, ending the year within 20% of prerecession highs. The nation’s unemployment rate dropped during the year from 7.8% to 6.7%, although the statistical improvement was largely due to part-time jobs and departures from the workforce.

The U.S. Federal Reserve continued to inject a steady $85 billion into the economy every month by purchasing U.S. Treasury and mortgage bonds. The Fed also kept short-term interest rates as close to zero as possible. The low rates encouraged investors to purchase equities, helping drive the stock market higher, and also boosted home sales. New mortgage rates drifted up during the year, with 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rising to 4.5% by year-end, up from 3.4% a year earlier.

Although some economists warned of potentially drastic consequences from the Fed’s liquidity creation, including a return to high inflation, there was no sign of significantly higher prices in 2013. The Consumer Price Index rose just 1.2% during the year, while so-called core inflation (excluding more volatile energy and food prices) was up 1.7%, with both increases well below their Fed targets. The U.S. economy was boosted by increasing energy independence as the rapid expansion of fracking produced huge quantities of domestic oil and gas in states from Texas to North Dakota.

The U.S. uptick in performance came as other major world economies—such as those in the EU and Japan—continued to show sluggish growth. The U.S. improvement was not sufficient to provide its usual strong leadership to the world economy, however. The U.S. budget deficit, which topped $1 trillion for four consecutive years, dropped to $680 billion in FY 2013. The reduction came as several entities that received federal rescue money during the 2008 financial panic, including housing agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, made large repayments to the Treasury. Reduced expenditures from the sequester, higher taxes from a 2012 budget deal on upper-income individuals, and declining unemployment expenditures also contributed to deficit reduction. In December, in a sign of increased confidence in the economy, the Federal Reserve announced that it would soon begin tapering its bond purchases from $85 billion to $75 billion per month. Although some analysts feared that any slowdown in the Fed’s four-year “quantitative easing” program would spook the stock market, equities continued to surge.

Foreign Policy

The U.S. continued to retreat from its once-dominant role in world political affairs during the year, searching for a less-confrontational role and sharing leadership, sometimes inadvertently, with other countries. The planned withdrawal from an aggressive fighting role in Afghanistan by 2014 proceeded unevenly, amid rocky negotiations with Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai, who refused U.S. requests to negotiate with the Taliban. In a May speech Obama declared that the global war on terrorism initiated after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was over, to be replaced by a more localized campaign against specific terrorist-related targets. The new focus at times became confusing. In Libya, fearing local reaction, the U.S. took no overt action to apprehend those responsible for the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. As an army coup eliminated an elected Islamic regime in Egypt, the U.S. also faced conflicting interests but finally offered some financial and military aid and thereby maintained strong national security ties to the new government even while calling for the restoration of democracy.

In Syria the U.S. found itself backing rebels seeking the ouster of the Assad regime, even though militant Islamist groups were prominent among the insurgents. In August, when a sarin gas attack killed more than 1,000 people near Damascus, the U.S. announced that it was prepared to bomb Syrian government facilities. Obama subsequently declared that he would seek congressional approval for the strike, but support was lacking. Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin, a staunch ally of Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad, opposed Western military intervention and happily brokered a deal under which Syria would disclose and help dispose of its extensive chemical weapons stockpiles.

In November, following months of negotiations, a U.S.-led coalition announced a high-stakes six-month agreement with Iran designed to thwart that country’s nuclear-weapons-development program. The pact eased Western sanctions that had been increasingly effective in hobbling the Iranian economy, allowing $6 billion in sanctions relief while requiring Iran to suspend weapons-grade nuclear enrichment and allow close international inspections. Israel declared the deal to be a “historic mistake,” and U.S. conservatives suggested that the move amounted to appeasement. Others, including European allies, saw the arrangement as a historic breakthrough, the beginnings of a major thaw in U.S.-Iran relations, and the best way to temper or eliminate Iranian nuclear ambitions short of a potentially disastrous war.

China continued to flex its muscles in regional territorial disputes, complicating a vital U.S. bilateral relationship driven by interdependence with the Chinese economy. As North Korea continued threats and provocations, including a third nuclear underground test in February, China expressed outrage but made no serious move to reign in its client state. Early in the year a published report alleged that a Chinese army cyberespionage group, based in Shanghai, had made concerted attacks on U.S. government, military, defense contractor, and news media Web sites. U.S. outrage was muted after leaked documents indicated that U.S. security agencies had employed similar techniques against Chinese targets. In late 2013 China stepped up territorial and oversight claims, leading to several incidents involving U.S. military forces near China, including a near collision between the U.S. cruiser Cowpens and a Chinese naval vessel. Even so, U.S. relations with China were stable at year-end.

The U.S. relationship with Russia continued to deteriorate during 2013. By siding with Iran and Syria in international organizations, Russia effectively blunted U.S. attempts at global action against perceived rogue regimes. As human rights and democratic reforms eroded in Russia, U.S. officials were among the Putin administration’s prominent public critics. In turn, Putin tweaked the U.S. at seemingly every opportunity, most notably when he granted asylum to National Security Agency (NSA) whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Obama then canceled a September summit meeting with Putin, and most observers considered the U.S. administration’s 2009 “reset” with Russia to have been a failure.

U.S. diplomats scrambled during the year to cope with the fallout from the disclosure of national security secrets by Snowden. Working in Hawaii as a technical expert for a government contractor, Snowden accessed up to 1.7 million files of classified material about U.S. domestic and overseas data-collection efforts and began distributing them to news outlets in early 2013. The disclosures wreaked havoc on U.S. bilateral relationships as officials tried to justify secret programs that targeted U.S. citizens and foreign allies. Just before stories leaked by Snowden began appearing in June, Snowden traveled to Hong Kong. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed arrest papers in late June, but Hong Kong authorities claimed that they were technically deficient and allowed Snowden to leave for Moscow, where he was eventually granted temporary asylum.

One Snowden-inspired report indicated that U.S. operatives had conducted electronic surveillance of leaders in 35 countries, many of them allies, including tapping the personal cell phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The disclosure forced Obama to apologize and to assure Merkel that her phone was not currently being monitored, but the incident caused a near rupture of intelligence-gathering cooperation between Germany and the U.S. After similar allegations surfaced of surveillance targeting Brazilian Pres. Dilma Rousseff, a U.S. apology was labeled insufficient. In December Brazil rejected a $4 billion fighter-plane bid from American manufacturer Boeing, awarding the contract instead to a Swedish firm.

The Snowden leaks also had domestic U.S. ramifications, as some congressmen claimed that they were unaware of the extent of U.S. spying operations. For his part Obama announced a review of domestic surveillance and suggested that he was willing to consider trimming programs that violated privacy without producing commensurate intelligence information. In December a federal judge ruled that the NSA’s bulk collection of U.S. phone records, first revealed in a Snowden leak, likely violated constitutional rights; the DOJ immediately filed an appeal. While U.S. authorities continued to demand Snowden’s extradition from Russia, polls showed that most Americans believed Snowden to be a laudable whistle-blower. Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who assisted Snowden, asserted in December that only a fraction of Snowden’s documents had yet been publicly aired, and one NSA official suggested that a pardon for Snowden might be considered if he returned yet-undisclosed classified material.

Developments in the States 2013

With their balance sheets belatedly improving, U.S. states showed caution in enacting new spending, tax, or regulatory ideas during 2013. Increasingly partisan interaction with the federal government, particularly over details of the new national health care scheme, preoccupied state officials, with states deeply divided over what they believed to be the proper degree of federal-state cooperation.

New Jersey’s Republican Gov. Chris Christie addresses supporters at an election-night party on …

Mike Segar—Reuters/Landov

Only two states held general elections during the year. Republicans retained the New Jersey governorship, but Democrats took over the executive mansion in Virginia. The results left Republicans holding 29 governorships and Democrats with 21 for 2014. Republicans made modest gains in limited legislative elections, but no chambers changed party control. In Colorado voters upset with gun-control legislation recalled two Democratic state senators, but a third, also facing a recall election, resigned to ensure that Democrats could appoint her successor and thereby preserve Democratic control of the chamber. At year’s end Republicans held two-chamber control of 26 state legislatures, Democrats dominated 19, and only 4 states were split or tied. (Nebraska has a unicameral, nonpartisan legislature.)

Structures, Powers

The year saw numerous controversies regarding the application of federalism (that is, what might be defined as the proper relationship between the federal government and the states). By invalidating a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to free states with a history of election-related discrimination from being forced to obtain federal “preclearance” for any legal changes that might affect voting. The U.S. Department of Justice, however, sued Texas over a voter identification law, thus suggesting that the administration of Pres. Barack Obama would continue to challenge laws motivated by “intentional discrimination” under a different section of the 1965 act.

A federal court approved a Michigan plan to take Detroit into bankruptcy, ruling that federal bankruptcy law superseded a state constitutional provision that labour unions had claimed protected public-employee pensions. (SeeSpecial Report.) New Jersey voters approved a measure that inserted an indexed minimum wage into the state constitution, making their state the 11th to tie the minimum wage to inflation. Voters in Washington state rejected an initiative that would have eased the process of getting future initiatives onto the ballot.

Finances

As the U.S. economy continued its slow recovery, state balance sheets showed steady improvement across the board. One conspicuous rebound occurred in California, where an improving economy and a 2012 boost in sales and income taxes erased a sizable deficit and moved the state decisively back into the black. For a fourth consecutive year, lawmakers in most states avoided major fiscal changes, showing caution in new spending or taxation programs.

State governments were adversely affected by $85 billion in federal “sequestration” budget cuts (automatic across-the-board reductions of defense and nondefense spending). Federal assistance for a variety of programs, ranging from unemployment payments to education assistance, was trimmed in response to the cuts. Recovering sales-, property-, and income-tax revenue allowed most states to absorb the aid cuts without serious disruption. (See Special Report.)

A few states increased taxes. Minnesota raised taxes on highest earners by 2% and doubled its cigarette tax. Arkansas lowered personal income taxes slightly but increased the state sales tax. Tennessee reduced its sales tax on food. Colorado voters rejected a proposal to increase incomes taxes to raise $950 million to fund education. Colorado, however, also voted to tax newly authorized retail recreational marijuana dispensaries and use the funds for school construction.

With federal support lagging and after years of deferring maintenance, several states approved funding for sizable transportation projects. To pay for these projects, Virginia introduced a 3.5% wholesale tax on gasoline; Pennsylvania removed a cap on wholesale gas taxes; Vermont established a new 2% sales tax on gas; Massachusetts (over a gubernatorial veto), California, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, and Wyoming raised gas taxes; and Texas diverted $1.2 billion from its rainy-day fund. Reversing recent policy encouraging fuel efficiency, Virginia also imposed a novel $64 fee on hybrid and alternate-fuel vehicles because they generated so little gasoline-tax revenue. (SeeSpecial Report.)

Only minor progress was reported in reducing the liability of states for underfunded pension systems for public employees, variously estimated at $1.2 to $4.1 trillion. One report suggested that only five states made significant improvement in funding pensions during the 2012 fiscal year, whereas 40 states saw their liability increase. The Illinois legislature approved, by a narrow margin, a measure aimed at eventual elimination of the state’s unfunded $100 billion pension-liability burden, the largest in the country. The plan reduced benefits and mandated that future legislatures meet pension obligations. Critics predicted that it would fail. After protests from labour unions, Rhode Island considered rolling back its groundbreaking 2011 pension reforms.

By refusing to hear an appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court left standing a New York law requiring Internet merchants to collect state sales taxes. Iowa, Maine, and Minnesota joined about a dozen other states in requiring sales-tax collection for Internet sales. Thanks to opposition in the House, Congress was unable to pass federal legislation that would prescribe state sales-tax enforcement nationwide for the Internet.

Law, Justice

Reversing a decadelong trend—and reflecting changing public opinion—several states moved to assist illegal immigrants. Eight more states agreed to issue special driver’s licenses to undocumented aliens. Colorado and Oregon joined the states that already offered in-state tuition to those in the country illegally. Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, on the other hand, implemented laws requiring more businesses to use the federal E-Verify system to check legal status before hiring.

States tackled a new issue in 2013: drones (unmanned aerial vehicles). Nine states approved new drone laws, with six—Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Montana, Oregon, and Tennessee—requiring a probable-cause warrant before law enforcement could use drones for criminal investigations. Texas restricted private drone use, and Virginia and North Carolina sought to slow drone use by law enforcement. Other states welcomed drone testing as a job-creation measure, and Maine’s governor vetoed a drone-regulation bill, citing potential adverse effects on job creation. (SeeSpecial Report.)

Voters in New York and Massachusetts authorized new casinos, whereas, amid fears that casinos were becoming too numerous in the mid-Atlantic region, Delaware disbursed $8 million to three struggling racetrack casinos for new gaming equipment. Ohio banned Internet cafes in a bid to curb illegal gambling. New Jersey joined Nevada and Delaware in permitting online gambling. Wyoming established the country’s 44th state lottery but joined North Dakota in banning instant-lottery scratch-off tickets.

Gun laws continued to vary widely between states. Illinois, under pressure from federal courts, overrode a gubernatorial veto and became the 50th state to approve carrying concealed handguns. Among 14 states loosening gun restrictions, Kansas extended carry rights to public buildings, and Mississippi expanded rights to openly display. Among the states that tightened gun regulations were Maryland, Connecticut, New York, and, controversially, Colorado (where two state senators were recalled in response to legislation that limited magazine size and made background checks mandatory for all gun sales).

Responding to business complaints about “patent troll” harassment, officials in Vermont and Nebraska took legal action during the year against a nationwide firm that acquired patents and asserted often-frivolous infringement claims. Alabama and Mississippi became the 49th and 50th states to legalize the making of home-brewed beer. Most jurisdictions, however, continued to limit the quantity and the transportation of the product.

Maryland became the sixth state in six years to eliminate capital punishment. Other states, however, moved to speed up executions by reducing appeal time, including Florida, where the average time between conviction and execution was 13 years. North Carolina repealed its Racial Justice Act, which had expanded appeal grounds for some death row inmates.

Health

The turmoil over the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), better known as Obamacare, dominated headlines and divided the states during 2013. Only 16 states, along with Washington, D.C., set up their own insurances exchanges as envisioned by the act, with 34 states joining a federal exchange Web site that experienced severe problems during its October 1 rollout. Opinion was also split over a PPACA provision offering full federal reimbursement—though only for three years—for states offering a significant expansion of low-income Medicaid, a joint federal-state program. By year’s end 21 states (almost all Republican-controlled) had rejected the deal; 25, plus the District of Columbia, had accepted it; and 4 more were still considering it. The stakes were enormous: by accepting the federal Medicaid expansion deal, California was set to receive about $68 billion in additional federal funds over 10 years, whereas Texas and Florida, which both rejected the proposal, passed up about $66 billion each for their state health care providers. In the shift to Medicaid, California and New Hampshire each eliminated its separate Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

State experiences in running exchanges varied. Kentucky and California reported few problems, but poorly constructed exchange plans in Oregon and Hawaii failed to sign up significant numbers of enrollees for weeks. For states relying on the slow-starting federal-run exchange system, glitches in screening applicants discouraged enrollments, and most early enrollees on most exchanges were those qualifying for free Medicaid. With the new law providing $10 billion in federal aid for states showing innovation in reducing rising costs, several states—including Arkansas, New York, Ohio, and Oregon—initiated major projects to eliminate inefficiencies and to find health care program savings.

Social Issues

Nearly 10 months after Washington state and Colorado had legalized marijuana possession, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it was ending a 75-year-old prohibition policy. It would instead allow states to regulate “pot” for medicinal and recreational purposes. Both states moved during the year to set up a tax and regulation regime for marijuana sales.

A closely watched U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June securing federal same-sex marriage rights created major uncertainty in some states. The decision cast serious doubt on state same-sex marriage bans in 34 states but left them standing at least temporarily. The court failed to address whether all states had to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states where the practice was legal. The high court also dismissed challenges to a California court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. During the year same-sex marriage became legal in Delaware, Rhode Island, Minnesota, New Jersey, Hawaii, Illinois, New Mexico, and Utah; thus at year-end 2013, same-sex couples were allowed to marry in 18 states and the District of Columbia. (SeeSpecial Report.)

Vermont joined Oregon and Washington in allowing physician-assisted suicide (doctors in Montana also had court-established legal protection for the practice). However, a new Oklahoma law decreed that terminally ill or disabled elderly patients could not be denied life-preserving treatment if either the patient or a health care proxy requested that treatment. Indiana and Nevada became the 42nd and 43rd states to authorize physician orders for life-saving treatment (POLST) laws, which established procedures for denying care late in life.

Continuing to test the limits of U.S. Supreme Court abortion guidelines, 21 states approved new abortion measures curbing access to abortion during 2013. Arkansas passed, over a gubernatorial veto, the country’s most restrictive law, prohibiting abortions after 12 weeks. North Dakota later joined Arkansas in prohibiting any abortion after detection of a fetal heartbeat during an ultrasound procedure. North Dakota also approved the first state law banning abortions sought because of Down syndrome or other fetal abnormalities. Virtually all new abortion laws were under legal appeal by year’s end, including a restrictive new Texas law requiring physicians to obtain hospital admittance privileges before performing an abortion, the enforcement of which the Supreme Court chose (5–4) not to block, allowing the case to proceed through the legal system.

Environment, Energy

Conservatives mounted major challenges to alternative- energy mandates in about two dozen state legislatures, arguing that the measures violated free-market principles and increased electricity prices. Nevertheless, during the year no state reduced its renewable-energy requirement, decreased its percentage mandate, or extended the deadlines for utilities to meet it. Two states, Minnesota and Colorado, increased mandate requirements on some industry segments. Responding to a long drought, Texas voters approved a major new Water Development Fund, allocating $2 billion from the state rainy-day reserves for water projects.

Education, Welfare

The Common Core State Standards initiative, an Obama administration-backed measure to standardize and improve basic kindergarten–12th grade student skills, lost some momentum during 2013. Although 45 states had originally supported Common Core, backers of state and local educational policy raised objections in some two dozen states, and Indiana became the first state to stop implementation pending further review. A trend toward alternatives to public schools continued, with 13 states creating or expanding tuition tax credits, vouchers, or private-school scholarships during the year. Kentucky allowed school districts to raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18.

Voters in Washington state rejected an initiative that would have required products with genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, to be labeled as such; California voters had turned down a similar measure in 2012. Maine voters approved five ballot measures authorizing infrastructure improvements and higher-education construction projects. Seven more states, for a total of 10, prohibited local government from requiring businesses to furnish paid sick leave for their workers. Nevada prohibited those under age 18 from using indoor tanning beds. Florida also removed the word retardation from state laws, replacing it with intellectual disability.

9,526,468 sq km (3,678,190 sq mi), including 223,798 sq km of inland water and 155,293 sq km of the Great Lakes that lie within U.S. boundaries but excluding 111,849 sq km of coastal water and 193,148 sq km of territorial water